Bradenton, The Friendly City, is one of the most generous in the US, GoFundMe says

Jason Dill
·2 min read

The Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are associated as the seasons of giving.

Now Bradenton and Sarasota were named as two of the top 10 cities in America for giving.

GoFundMe, the world’s largest online fundraising platform, released its annual Giving Report that ranked states and cities in America by how generous they were for 2021.

Sarasota came in at No. 9, while Bradenton was ranked 10th as the most generous for supporting individuals, causes and organizations in the year, according to a news release.

One of the highlights for support in Bradenton came when more than $80,000 was raised for Matt Reich, who was hit by a car while riding his bike home after volunteering at Bradenton’s Turning Points homeless shelter, according to the news release.

“On the days I’m feeling down, I remember all the support that is out there for me,” Reich wrote in the updates of the fundraiser page, GoFundMe’s release said. “I’m lucky to be here and lucky to have so many people who love and support me. Be kind to each other and you’ll be amazed at the effect it will have on them and yourself.”

For Sarasota’s top fundraisers came when Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt A. Hoffman raised more than $192,000 to help Deputy Mubarak relocate to Florida after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan earlier this year, the news release said.

The most generous cities in America were based on donations per capita on GoFundMe, the report said.

They were ranked, with Florida cities listed in bold, as follows:

  1. Spring, Texas

  2. Marietta, Georgia

  3. Silver Spring, Maryland

  4. Miami

  5. Alpharetta, Georgia

  6. Fort Lauderdale

  7. Minneapolis

  8. Olympia, Washington

  9. Sarasota

  10. Bradenton

The GoFundMe report also detailed the following:

  • 434 donations made by the most generous donor

  • 15 million messages of thank you to and from the GoFundMe community

  • 1 in 3 fundraisers are started for someone else

  • Fastest growing categories: Newlyweds and Animals

  • March 28, 2021: The most generous day of the year

  • Texas Storms: Nearly $10 million raised

  • Surfside Condo Collapse: $2.4 million raised

  • Hurricane Ida: 250,000 donors